Barbie Kjar is a Tasmanian artist. She has completed a Masters of Fine Art at RMIT, Melbourne; Bachelor of Fine Arts and Education, University of Tasmania, Hobart. She has undertaken an art print residence in Spain and Draw International in Caylus, France, along with residencies in Rome, Barcelona, Havana, San Francisco, Mexico City and Tokyo and been the recipient of several Australia Council grants. Since 1986 she has held 36 solo exhibitions in Australia and more recently in Barcelona and Tokyo, as well as China, Korea, Siberia, France, Canada, USA and Japan.
Her work has recently been selected in significant art prizes including National Works on Paper exhibition, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (2020); Geelong Print Prize exhibition, Geelong Art Gallery, Flow, Contemporary Watercolour exhibition, Wollongong Art Gallery, Lyn McCrae Drawing exhibition, Noosa Gallery (2019); Paul Guest Drawing Prize exhibition (2018): Highly Commended Waterhouse Science and Art Prize, Art Gallery South Australia (2017); Dobell Drawing Prize exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
She was awarded the James Northfield scholarship at Australian Print Workshop (2019) and her work was selected for Impact 10, International Print Exhibition in Santander, Spain (2019). She was the winner of the Bay of Fires Art Prize in 2015.
Barbie Kjar’s work has been purchased by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; Parliament House, Canberra; Wagga Wagga Gallery; National Gallery of Victoria; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery; Fremantle Arts Centre; Grafton Regional Gallery; Queensland University of Technology; Gold Coast City Art Gallery; University of Southern Queensland and is held in private collections in USA, France, Sweden, England and Australia.